Garden Festival Report
by Tobu Ishi
Summary: The dunk-the-headmaster booth wasn’t getting very many people trying it, I think because of the utter scariness of Headmaster Cid’s swim trunks. They have little SeeD logos all over them...' Pure silly fluff. Sq-R, Sel-I


Garden Festival Report  
  
____________________  
  
By Selphie Tilmitt (President of the School Festival Committee)  
  
Okay, people, the first-ever Garden Festival organized by yours truly is now over! Too bad, huh? But yeah, it was a really huge success and loads of people came! Woo-hoo!  
  
There's a whole lot of work that goes into organizing a festival. I should know! So to kind of explain how the whole thing works, I'm going to write like kind of a diary of my day! Well, it's already written, I'm just posting it. 'Cuz I thought it'd be a really neat idea, don't you think?  
  
So yeah, here's my Diary of the Garden Festival! Yay!  
  
---  
  
5:00 am – I get up. Boo. It's waaay too early for this! Maybe I'll just roll over and  
  
---  
  
6:00 am – Okay, so I admit, it's a lucky thing that Rinoa came and checked on me. But still! Nobody likes getting shaken awake like that! She's pretty skinny, you think she'd have a weaker grip. My shoulders still hurt... At least she was nice about it.  
  
Right, so I'd better get dressed and have breakfast and all that stuff. Time to hit the cafeteria!  
  
---  
  
6:45 am – The cafeteria wasn't open. Bummer. I guess it doesn't normally open 'till later. I never get up this early, so I didn't know...  
  
Another lucky thing—Rinoa keeps a buncha snacks and stuff in her room, so we just filled up on energy bars and powdered milk. Yummy! Even if we did have to get the water for the milk from the bathroom tap. At least it's clean and stuff.  
  
So yeah, I'm all dressed and ready to hit the festival! We open at nine, so we're gonna have to hurry!  
  
---  
  
7:30 am – Boys are idiots!  
  
Darn it, Squall and Irvine and Zell all double-pinky-promised they'd show up to help out, and not one of them was awake on time! We had to go bang on their doors until they got up! Stupid meanies!  
  
Then again, they looked really funny all messed-up and sleepy. I never knew Squall knew so many cuss-words. I don't think Rinoa did either, or she wouldn't have smacked him in the head like that when he opened his door.  
  
But anyway, we got them out of bed—finally!—and we're all outside setting up the festival booths. Zell and Irvine brought some buddies, so things are taking shape really fast. This looks like it's gonna be great!  
  
We even got some professional rentals for the game booths! All the proceeds are going to help upkeep the Garden, too, so the students'll be helping take care of the Garden! It's a lot more fun than cleaning classrooms, anyway!  
  
Ooh, I think there's something wrong with the sound system. I better go check it out.  
  
---  
  
8:45 am – Everything's better now, thank goodness. Zell's buddy knocked over a microphone stand and it got snagged in some wires when it fell off the stage and pulled them loose, and they were attached to the scaffolding already, so then—well, it was a big mess. We just barely got it all fixed a few minutes ago. I was getting kinda nervous there!  
  
Anyhow, it's almost time for the festival to start! I can see students lining up already...wow, there's a lot of them! I hope everything goes really really well! Wish us luck!  
  
---  
  
10:00 am – Yay! Yay yay yay! Everybody's having a great time! I had to make a speech when the gates opened, because I'm the president of the festival committee and everything, but it was okay because everybody loved me! I think it's because I was careful not to talk too long like a teacher or something.  
  
"Hi, I'm Selphie Tilmitt, the president of the Festival Committee." Rinoa and Irvine started a cheer, and I had to wait for everybody to calm down after. How cool is that? "I'm glad you all look so happy to be here. We have lots of stuff to do, so have a great time, and remember to spend lots of money! All the profits are going to the Garden, so it's kinda like you're paying yourselves to have fun! So....go have fun! Woo-hoo!"  
  
It wasn't like the best speech in history or anything, but it got the job done, right? So then everybody hit the booths!  
  
Okay, so this is what we have at the Garden Festival this year:  
  
-A dart booth where you have to pop water balloons to get prizes.  
  
-A goldfish-fishing booth. (Headmaster Cid gave permission for students to keep them as pets in the dorms as an exception. He figures they'll all croak soon anyway.)  
  
-A paper-fortune-picking booth.  
  
-An archery booth where you hit a target.  
  
-One of those things that you hit with a hammer and the bell rings if you're strong.  
  
-A kissing booth. Irvine's doing that one, and I'm gonna kill him just as soon as he makes enough money.  
  
-This really cool booth where there's all these stick-things on round floaty-things floating on a big tray of water and you have to throw a ring so it lands over a stick-thing. I wanna try it!  
  
-A dunk-the-headmaster booth where you throw baseballs at a target. Headmaster Cid in a swimsuit...yuck!  
  
-Karaoke! It's set up over on the stage until the dance tonight!  
  
-A palm-reading booth! Xu's being Madame Xu and reading peoples' palms! Neato!  
  
-A whole buncha food booths staffed by the cafeteria ladies! I want red- bean ice cream and roasted corn and curly fries and cotton candy and squid- on-a-stick and mochi dango and......everything!  
  
There's a whole bunch of other stuff too, but those are my favorites. I wanna try them all! Well...maybe not Irvine's. But the other ones!  
  
---  
  
3:00 pm – Sorry for not writing anything for so long! This has been soooo fun! I didn't wanna sit down and write stuff!  
  
Okay, so I didn't do the goldfish booth, because I felt kinda bad about taking them out of their pond and flipping them all over the place in a little plastic bag. But I did do the ring toss booth, and I won one of those headband thingies with the bouncy-ball antennae on it! Like, an alien hat or something! I didn't know we had those as prizes! But yeah, it's green with blue sparkly-stars on the bouncy-ball bits, and I get to wear it all over the festival! Woo-hoo!  
  
The karaoke stage is really really popular, but it's kinda creepy at times. Like Squall says, you haven't felt true pain until you've heard Zell try to sing "Eyes on Me". Scaaaryyyyy. But Quistis has a really pretty voice. Who woulda thunk?  
  
I got my palm read by "Madame" Xu, and she says I'm destined for great romance and adventure. Yeah, well, I've already got the adventure part, so where's the romance, huh?  
  
Ooh, and speaking of romance, Squall got major brownie points! He won Rinoa this huuuuuge moogle doll at the dart-throwing booth! She was really excited! I don't think he was very happy about having to carry it around all day for her, though. He tried to get Irvine to take a shift with it, but he just said, "C'est la vie." I think that's French for "Sucks to be you."  
  
Zell tried the strength-tester to show off for his girlfriend, that chick from the library, but it didn't work very well...I don't think he was hitting it right or something, because he kept getting rated "Wet Noodle". At least he didn't get "Chickenwuss" or something. Quistis wanted to put that on there for a rating, just for fun, but he wouldn't let her.  
  
---  
  
5:00 pm – Coolest thing ever! The dunk-the-headmaster booth wasn't getting very many people trying it, I think because of the utter scariness of Headmaster Cid's swim trunks. They have little SeeD logos all over them... So yeah, just the kids who get in trouble all the time were doing it, for revenge, you know?  
  
And then like a minute ago, Quistis comes walking up in this really cute one-piece and she's all like, "Sorry, Headmaster, I'm taking over," and gets up in the dunk tank! "I'm doing this for you, Selphie," she said, "because I didn't help set up, so you'd better appreciate it."  
  
So we changed the sign to "Dunk the Trepe," and the line like tripled in about five seconds! It was so funny when she got dunked the first time, too...she made this little freaked-out "oh!" sound when the seat dropped, and she came up looking kind of like a drowned rat. I don't think the Trepies cared, though. They were probably all excited to see if she was nipping out or anything. Those guys creep me out. I'm glad I just have my Irvy Kinny-poo and nobody else...  
  
Her face was so priceless, though! I'm still giggling just thinking about it. Props to Quistis for being an awesome sport!  
  
---  
  
7:52 pm – It's almost time for the dance....the booths'll close soon. Should I or shouldn't I? I can't decide...  
  
---  
  
8:00 pm – I did it! I did it! I can't believe I did it! I went up to Irvine's booth and got a kiss! The line was gone, too, because it was almost time for the dance...  
  
Ooohhh....that was fun....  
  
...he wouldn't take any money, either....that's good, right?!  
  
Erk, gotta go, the dance is starting!  
  
---  
  
11:07 pm - That was the neatest dance in the wooooorld!  
  
No really, it was really cool! I got to help play in the band for a while, and I got to dance for a while, and I got to dance with Irvine, and there was all kinds of music instead of just the fancy kind like they have at the SeeD balls, and...oooooooo that was too fun!  
  
I didn't know Zell could breakdance, but he did, and it was awesome! I guess if he can do a triple backflip, breakdancing must come naturally or something... Except that he tried to do a handstand thing and fell over and whacked his head, but his girlfriend kissed it better, so I don't think he minded. And Irvine can swingdance! I never knew that! I wonder where he learned how? He probably thought it would "help him score with the ladies" or something. It was cool dancing with him, even though I had to totally make it up as I went along...he didn't seem to care, so it was all good.  
  
We even had some fireworks at the very end of the dance, after the last song! They played "Eyes on Me", with a good singer this time, not Zell, and it was the most romantic thing ever...  
  
---  
  
12:14 am - Well, yeah, so I guess the festival's over. Everybody's gone. Man, I'm tired...and I still have to help take everything down....I guess that's the price you pay to be the president. Too bad. I guess I know how Sir Laguna feels. Oh well, it was still the most awesome festival ever! I got lots of compliments from people on how good it was, too! Thanks everybody who helped out for making this such a great year!  
  
---  
  
I can't wait for next year's Garden Festival! I've got a million bazillion ideas already!  
  
-signing out, this is Selphie Tilmitt! @-\--  
  
_______________________________________________________  
  
Author's Notes - Well, there's my attempt at the Garden Festival. I hope y'all enjoyed it!  
  
One note- Since Balamb Garden is kind of a mixture of Japanese and Western school styles, with the addition of the military theme, I guessed that the Garden Festival would be a mixture of a Western end-of-school fair and a Japanese school festival. Hence the combination of Japanese and Western food and games.  
  
It was really fun to write in Selphie's voice, surprisingly enough. She's just so funny and genki...it was a nice change from the drama I've been writing lately. She annoys me sometimes in the game, but she's great to write for.  
  
Cheers! Tobu Ishi  
  
PS – There are illustrations for this fic viewable in the Fantasy World BBS version of this story. If you care to see a bunch of so-so three-minute sketches, go here: ; num=1066715970 


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